412 Answersthree steps forward for one step backward, we perform the required feat in
nineteen steps.- AN AWKWARD TIME
The Colonel's friend said that 12:50 is clearly an awkward time for a train
to start, because it is ten to one (10 to 1) if you catch it.- CRYPTIC ADDITION
If you tum the page upside down you will find that one, nine, one, and
eight added together correctly make nineteen.- THE TWO SNAKES
We cannot say how much of each snake must be swallowed before a vital
organ is sufficiently affected to cause death. But we can say what will not
happen-that the snakes will go on swallowing one another until both disap-
pear altogether! But where it will really end it is impossible to say.- TWO PARADOXES
If W and E were stationary points, and W, as at present, on your left when
advancing towards N, then, after passing the Pole and turning round, W
would be on your right, as stated. But Wand E are not fixed points, but
directions round the globe; so wherever you stand facing N, you will have the
W direction on your left and the E direction on the right.
In the reflection in a mirror you are not "turned round," for what appears
to be your right hand is your left, and what appears to be your left side is the
right. The reflection sends back, so to speak, exactly what is opposite to it at
every point.
[If the reader does not understand Dudeney's brief explanation of the
mirror paradox, he should consult the first chapter of my Ambidextrous
Universe (Basic Books, 1965), where it is considered at greater length.-M. G.]